Recipe: Mama Thai's Spicy Radish Kimchi

I’ve always struggled with finding kimchi at the store that is flavorful and doesn’t get overly fermented over time. Then, my mom shared her recipe for homemade radish kimchi with me, and I will never go back to buying store-bought kimchi. It’s incredibly flavorful, delightfully spicy and is nice and crunchy with every single bite. The best part is, this recipe keeps really well; I’ve had a jar in my fridge for over a month before, without it getting over fermented or too sour.

I asked her if I could share her recipe with you all, and she agreed, so without further ado:

Spicy Radish Kimchi

Makes: Two 16 oz. jars

Prep time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Cook time: 48 hours

Ingredients:

4 lbs Korean radish
2 tbsp Kosher salt
2 tbsp sugar

Aioli:

2 tbsp rice flour
1/4 cup water
6 garlic cloves
2 tsp grated ginger
1/3 cup Korean chili powder
3 tbsp Korean chili paste (gochujang)
3 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp Korean salted shrimp
3 tbsp sugar
3 stalks of green onions

Instructions:

Peel radish and cut into cubes. Mix 2 tbsp of coarse kosher salt with 2 tbsp of sugar, toss with radish cubes and allow to sweat for two hours. After two hours, strain, rinse and strain again. Set aside.
Add water and rice flour to a small saucepan and whisk consistently over high heat until thickened. Remove from heat, cover and set aside.
Finely grind garlic and ginger into a paste. Blend all kimchi paste ingredients together and mix well with cubed Korean radish.
Pack radish into mason jars, tighted lid and leave out for 48 hours. After 48 hours, radish kimchi is ready to eat.
Store in fridge. Spice level is medium-hot; to adjust, reduce/add amount of Korean chili powder.